Our Wallpaper Nightmare

We started removing wallpaper last week. I was hesitant to start because I have heard of so many horrible stories of wallpaper that would not come off, or would come off it tiny pieces. Our entire first floor (besides the 3 bedrooms) is covered in wallpaper so I knew it was going to be a huge job and that our house was pretty much going to look terrible while we worked on it.  We thought the wallpaper looked pretty terrible too (just not our taste) so what did we have to lose?





After reading many tips and tricks online and watching many videos we bought a steamer. I was pleasantly surprised how easily the wallpaper came off. For the most part it was coming off in nice big pieces.



It left the backing, which we expected, but using the steamer it was softening and coming off in pretty big pieces too (with some scraping to help it along).

My excitement over how well it was all going might have been premature. The next step is to remove all of the glue from the walls. I have tried a combination of steaming, scraping, spraying with a fabric softener/water mix, wiping and scrubbing. It is working but at this rate we will be lucky if our walls are ready to paint by the end of the year! This is how much I cleaned in an hour and a half (about a 1ft by 4 ft section).

All of that yucky brown stuff? That is glue! If any of you have any fabulous tips for removing this stuff please, please, please share them!